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Displaying items by tag: ILCA6

Despite a gear failure setback in her first Gold Fleet race, Eve McMahon remains very much in the hunt for a Paris 2024 Olympic place in the final three races of the 2024 ILCA6 Women’s World Championship at Mar del Plata, Argentina, on Tuesday.

McMahon was scored as 'DNC', meaning she was officially recorded as 'did not come to the starting area' in the first of her two final races on Monday after her tiller-extension joint sheared right on the start line.

The fitting was replaced with a spare, but it meant missing the race.

The 52-point score – which may yet be discardable – and is in marked contrast to her earlier consistent results in the qualifying rounds of 19, 4, 19, 4 and 14.

The 19-year-old finished 18th in the second race and is currently in 20th place overall on 78 points in her 51-boat fleet, according to the official results (below).

Despite the DNC, McMahon remains in the hunt for one of seven Olympic nation qualification spots. Discounting those already qualified, here are the standings (as of Tuesday morning) for those crucial seven spots, with thanks to Howth Yacht Club for the working tally:

1. Finland: 67 points
2. Ireland: 78 points
3. Turkey: 104 points
4. Spain: 119 points
5. India: 122 points
6. Uruguay: 123 points
7. Romania: 126 points
8. Mexico: 129 points
9. Brazil: 137 points

Denmark's Rindom remains on top

The day’s first race unfolded with northwest winds at approximately 12 knots. For the second race, conditions changed as a southwest front entered, bringing an intensity of 18 knots that gradually decreased throughout the day.

In the gold fleet, Danish sailor Anne Marie Rindom remains firm at the top after securing a 7th place finish in the first race and winning the second. Norwegian sailor Line Flem Hoest rose to second place, trailing by only 12 points. Vasileia Karachaliou, representing Portugal, rose to third place, thanks to her consistent strategy throughout the day, achieving two fifth-place finishes.

According to official reports, the racing schedule has been adjusted at Mar del Plata to take advantage of the forecast, and organisers will aim for three races on Tuesday that will decide the championship - and with it, the next seven nation places for the Paris 2024 Olympics in the women's single-handed dinghy event.

Results below and check out McMahon's recent interview with Howth Yacht Club here

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The Irish sailor 'disqualified' from last week's ILCA European Championships in Italy missed an umpire's signal due to noise, according to the Irish Sailing Association.

The ISA state, "during racing, the on-the-water umpires signalled a penalty turns [sic] to Dun Laoghaire's Fiachra McDonnell, which he missed in the noise of the on-the-water activity". 

Following the conclusion of racing last Friday in the ILCA6 European Championship, the international jury disqualified McDonnell from the week-long competition, scoring him as 'DNE' or 'Do Not Exclude' for every race sailed.

McDonnell incurred three penalties during the course of the week-long competition in Andora, prompting the jury decision under Rule 42. 

A description of the incident on the event website on leg one of race 11 states, "Repeated body pumps on the beat, close to the mark, Did not retire, DNE for all races in the event".

"McDonnell was initially shown in the provisional results for the 71-boat fleet as having placed ninth overall, and only when the final official result was published on Friday evening was the revised standing apparent," the ISA said.

Published in Laser
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Howth teen Eve McMahon booked her place to the Youth World Sailing Championships in The Hague in July when she sailed to success at the Irish Youth Sailing Championships on Belfast Lough today. 

The reigning World Youth Champion in the single-handed ILCA6 (formerly the Laser Radial) won her 38-strong event in convincing fashion by winning both final races on Sunday to bring her tally to five race wins on Belfast Lough.

Clubmate Rocco Wright who had been leading the class and a group of six challengers since racing began on Thursday finished second overall.

Rocco WrightRocco Wright Photo: Simon McIlwaine/Wavelength Images

In so doing, both McMahon and Wright reached the standard to be nominated to represent Ireland in The Hague in the girls and boys divisions respectively of the World Sailing event.

Sienna Wright of Howth Yacht Club Photo: Simon McIlwaine/Wavelength ImagesSienna Wright of Howth Yacht Club Photo: Simon McIlwaine/Wavelength Images

There were further celebrations in the Howth YC camp when Sienna Wright, Rocco's younger sister won the ILCA 4 (formerly Laser 4.7) class by a comfortable 13-point margin.

Published in Eve McMahon

Galway Port & Harbour

Galway Bay is a large bay on the west coast of Ireland, between County Galway in the province of Connacht to the north and the Burren in County Clare in the province of Munster to the south. Galway city and port is located on the northeast side of the bay. The bay is about 50 kilometres (31 miles) long and from 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) to 30 kilometres (19 miles) in breadth.

The Aran Islands are to the west across the entrance and there are numerous small islands within the bay.

Galway Port FAQs

Galway was founded in the 13th century by the de Burgo family, and became an important seaport with sailing ships bearing wine imports and exports of fish, hides and wool.

Not as old as previously thought. Galway bay was once a series of lagoons, known as Loch Lurgan, plied by people in log canoes. Ancient tree stumps exposed by storms in 2010 have been dated back about 7,500 years.

It is about 660,000 tonnes as it is a tidal port.

Capt Brian Sheridan, who succeeded his late father, Capt Frank Sheridan

The dock gates open approximately two hours before high water and close at high water subject to ship movements on each tide.

The typical ship sizes are in the region of 4,000 to 6,000 tonnes

Turbines for about 14 wind projects have been imported in recent years, but the tonnage of these cargoes is light. A European industry report calculates that each turbine generates €10 million in locally generated revenue during construction and logistics/transport.

Yes, Iceland has selected Galway as European landing location for international telecommunications cables. Farice, a company wholly owned by the Icelandic Government, currently owns and operates two submarine cables linking Iceland to Northern Europe.

It is "very much a live project", Harbourmaster Capt Sheridan says, and the Port of Galway board is "awaiting the outcome of a Bord Pleanála determination", he says.

90% of the scrap steel is exported to Spain with the balance being shipped to Portugal. Since the pandemic, scrap steel is shipped to the Liverpool where it is either transhipped to larger ships bound for China.

It might look like silage, but in fact, its bales domestic and municipal waste, exported to Denmark where the waste is incinerated, and the heat is used in district heating of homes and schools. It is called RDF or Refuse Derived Fuel and has been exported out of Galway since 2013.

The new ferry is arriving at Galway Bay onboard the cargo ship SVENJA. The vessel is currently on passage to Belem, Brazil before making her way across the Atlantic to Galway.

Two Volvo round world races have selected Galway for the prestigious yacht race route. Some 10,000 people welcomed the boats in during its first stopover in 2009, when a festival was marked by stunning weather. It was also selected for the race finish in 2012. The Volvo has changed its name and is now known as the "Ocean Race". Capt Sheridan says that once port expansion and the re-urbanisation of the docklands is complete, the port will welcome the "ocean race, Clipper race, Tall Ships race, Small Ships Regatta and maybe the America's Cup right into the city centre...".

The pandemic was the reason why Seafest did not go ahead in Cork in 2020. Galway will welcome Seafest back after it calls to Waterford and Limerick, thus having been to all the Port cities.

© Afloat 2020